High-speed I-4 chase ends with two suspects in custody

Guns, marijuana found in car after Lake Mary officer causes it to spin out of control

November 30, 2010|By Gary Taylor, Orlando Sentinel

A high-speed chase down Interstate 4 Sunday night ended when a Lake Mary police officer used his patrol car to spin the fleeing vehicle out of control.

The driver was arrested in the vehicle, while a passenger was captured following a short foot pursuit.

Anthony J. Burgess, 25, and Dontreaun Alexander, 20, both of Sanford, face charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and felony possession of marijuana. Alexander is also accused of resisting arrest without violence and larceny of a firearm. Burgess faces additional charges of fleeing and eluding a law enforcement officer at high speeds and driving with a suspended driver's license.

They are being held in the Seminole County Jail with bail set at $2,250 each.

The pursuit began when Lake Mary officers learned Sanford police were looking for a 1999 Buick involved in an armed robbery in that city. The car was spotted on Lake Mary Boulevard and pursued onto I-4, according to arrest affidavits.

The chase reached speeds of more than 100 mph before Officer Travis Carraway performed a PIT maneuver in which he used his vehicle to spin the fleeing car out of control. That occurred near the rest area, just east of State Road 434.

After the vehicle was stopped, it caught fire, but Officer Ronald Tomassi used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. He suffered minor smoke inhalation.

Inside the car officers found two loaded semi-automatic and guns and marijuana packaged into 114 plastic bags containing about one gram each, according to the police reports.